1991 Steve Jobs NeXT Video

YouTube version of a 1991 internal NeXT “chalk talk” by Steve Jobs. The bottom line for NeXT was that they had very good products that no one wanted to buy. Jobs’s description in this video of where NeXT’s computers stood compared to the rest of the industry is, as usual, very astute. On the one hand NeXT offered usability and consumer software like Macs and PCs, but on the other hand, UNIX workstation-style networking, performance, and OS features. (TCP/IP networking, for example, was not a standard feature on either the Mac or Windows in 1991.)

Jobs was trying to make the case that this position was an advantage for NeXT, but in hindsight, it serves as an explanation for why NeXT never really took off. There was no market for what they were trying to sell.

(Here’s part two.)

★ Sunday, 19 October 2008